Friday, December 31

july: i was all settled in at my mom's house. beach trips. my sister turned 18. held my sister's hand while she got her first tattoo. steve and i took a train to chicago again, but this time to find an apartment. reiche family reunion. steve got a macbook in the mail from a friend as a graduation gift (it was very sweet). helped my sister put on her graduation party. moved to chicago at the end of the month.

august: we settled into our new apartment! celebrated my 5 year anniversary with steve. went to the art museum a few times. i hit the 100 follower mark on my blog. my family came to visit me at new home. steve's family also came to visit us! went tothe john hancock observatory, which took us 94 stories above michigan avenue! i started school, full-time.

september: i attended my first ever renegade craft fair. it was autumn; i made handmade apple pie to celebrate. i met a wonderful new friend. my sister came out to chicago for a visit.

october: steve released his very first chapbook.

november: completed phase 1 of 4 at school. steve turned 23. steve's family came to chicago, again. we went to the chicago symphony orchestra. i started out on the salon floor.

december: i had my second blog giveaway. went to the renegade holiday craft fair. i experienced my first chicago snow fall. traveled back to michigan to be with my family for a few days over the holiday.

Thursday, December 30

january: i celebrated the new year with a few of my friends, outside, howling at the moon. i went to a burlesque performance in detroit called wonderland, starring the lovely roxie dlite. i had little lunch and dinner dates with my friends. got a lot of modeling and senior portrait clients for my photography business.

february: i continued doing a ton of photography work with clients. celebrated valentines day with my darling steve (where i also asked him if he would like to be my boyfriend, again). i was able to celebrate my 21st birthday with my closest friends.

march: i reached the 50 follower mark on my blog...which lead to my first blog giveaway! i went on a lot of walks around my neighborhood. felt very inspired and creative. steve received his mfa acceptance letters in the mail. it became spring (one of my most favorite seasons)! also, more photoshoots...

april: i started the sunday spotlight feature on my blog. i bought two kites and flew them a at the park with steve. steve and i officially decided we were moving to chicago! we traveled on a train (for the first time) to chicago. i toured my school. steve read his poetry at columbia.

may: i picked flowers for my mom and made her a lunch for mothers day. photographed my second wedding. had a yard sale. my sister finished high school!

june: i had a picnic at the park. i changed my blog name from o me, o life to midnight black. my sister had her high school graduation. i joined a journal challenge. went to my sister's college orientation with her and my mom. it was summer! steve completed his undergrad study. i went tubing down the river with my friends. packed, packed, and packed. bye bye mount pleasant and back to my hometown for the summer.

Tuesday, December 21

i've been busy going to school and preparing for the holidays these past couple of weeks. i still have my perfect attendance record for school and i usually service a client or two a day now. the way things work in the salon are becoming a little more familiar to me. when i was first starting out on the salon floor i was a bit nervous. i also had one bad experience with a client, but since then i've been able to set my fear aside (for the most part). also, i am almost half way done with my program! only 5 more months to go, yay!

i'm so excited to be going home to michigan to see my family very soon. i haven't seen most of my family since i moved here in august. i have all my gifts for them picked out and wrapped. i know everyone will love the presents i picked out for them!

i also got myself a couple little gifts, hehe. one of which was from h&m. they had a 50% off sale on their coats, so i got a new one. it only costed me $35; i love it!

we had our first snowfall here a couple of weeks ago. i love the first snowfall, it's so magical, but then i quickly get tired of it, and steve and i think about how much we should have just moved to san francisco, haha.

Wednesday, December 1

it's taken me a long time to get this up since i've hit 100 followers back in august, but here it is! thank you to all of you wonderful people who take the time to read my blog. i appreciate your comments! this is for you...

Monday, November 29

this past weekend was quite lovely. thursday night steve's family arrived in chicago to visit with us. friday we all got up early and headed over to wicker park. we stopped in a couple of thrift stores, an urban outfitters (where i got a cardigan and a cute little pair of shoes), and a bike shop. after that little bit of shopping we went to have lunch at the handlebar. it was delicious! after lunch we went back to the apartment, relaxed for a few hours, then got dressed to go to the chicago symphony orchestra.

this is what steve had.

this is what i had. yum!

saturday was pretty much a day dedicated to good food. steve, joe, and i spent most of the day together. the rest of steve's family headed downtown to michigan avenue. once steve, joe, and i woke up, we walked on over to the chicago diner for brunch! after brunch joe rode his bike around. he had a lot of fun riding it in the city. steve and i met up with him at whole foods, where we bought vegan pizza ingredients! we came back home and rested up a little bit. joe went out to a bike shoe shop. once he got back we began making the pizzas! while joe finished up the pizzas, i began making two apple pies! like i said, this day was totally dedicated to good food.

Tuesday, November 16

Sunday, November 14

please tell us a little about yourself:over the past 5 years, i have considered myself mainly a poet. recently, i started making visual poems with large fonts and images. with some of my most recent projects, i realized they were quite a bit more "visual" than "poem," so now i consider myself a poet and a designer. also i have considered myself vegan since 2007 and have worked on different activism projects, including the video at youcanhelpstopthis.com (warning, graphic footage). and i consider myself a buddhist, or very influenced by buddhism. and i am your boyfriend. :) and we live with a dangerous mountain lion in chicago.

please tell us a little about your etsy shop:
right now i am selling minimalist ironic greeting cards, so they are white with black text in bold helvetica, and it says "card," "birthday card," "thank you card," and so on. the cards are letter-sized card stock folded in half, blank on the inside. i have around 10 different card designs and some packs of 3 or 5 cards. i just launched it, but i'll be expanding with more ideas in the upcoming months, including some stickers, wall prints, and t-shirts. http://www.etsy.com/shop/steveroggenbuck.

where do you get your design inspiration?
i like a lot of the minimalist design on aisleone.net. for other visual art, i really like the painters mark rothko and franz kline. i like art, design, and writing that is simple and feels good to me immediately when i see it. i think my art taste has been influenced a lot by zen buddhism and reading shunryu suzuki.

what direction do you hope to move in the future? do you have any big plans?
you know my plans, i think. :) i am in an mfa program for poetry right now. i am using my program as a time to focus very hard on my writing and art, as well as promoting my writing and art. i have a lot of ideas for poetry (e-)books, more etsy items, and touring and other things. i would like to make an income from my writing and design eventually so i can spend even more time on them. in general, i will keep making things i like and trying to share them with as many people as possible.
what is the best perk of being a designer?
my favorite thing is that i think i'm creating culture for like-minded people. as a vegan who grew up in a rural area, i sometimes felt like all the cultural options i had were for mainstream america but not for me. i got annoyed or bored with most movies and tv, and there weren't many stores or restaurants i felt like supporting. when i eventually found some writers and artists that presented alternative ways of doing things, it was very inspiring to me. with my writing and art, i would like to create something fun and sustaining for other young(-at-heart) people who are questioning mainstream values.

thank you very much for interviewing me jess, and thanks to everybody for reading it. you are all wonderful and cool.

Friday, November 12

i am so happy to finally be finished with phase 1, only 6 months to go! my instructor said i have perfect attendance, which i am very proud of and i hope i keep up with it through the whole program. i cannot believe i've already put in 3 months at this program. the time is just flying by! my wellness break starts on sunday. i have a much needed week off from school. over break i want to work on some hair designs to photograph. i'd really like to get a portfolio of my designs built up so i can start working on set at photo shoots for other photographers.

below are pictures of the pixie cut i had to do for finals. we were given a certain amount of time to cut, air form, and style. i really liked how mine tured out!

Thursday, November 11

Monday, November 8

the past month has been wild! i've been in school morning to evening--five days a week. it hasn't given me much time to blog, so i do apologize to my readers for my absence.

things are starting to wind down a little, though. this week is my last week of phase 1 at school, after this week is over i get a 1 week wellness break! i'm excited, especially to catch up on sleep! when i return to school i will be starting phase 2 and i will begin working on the salon floor. i'm very excited!

i've also been thinking a lot about my future. i know in my late twenties i want to open up my own photo studio, but i think it would be neat for it to be a photography and hair studio. i think it's an exciting idea!

this week is my darling steve's birthday! he is going to be 23 on thursday! i'm going to be featuring him in the next sunday spotlight, which will be on 11/14.

Wednesday, October 13

this past weekend i went to the music box theater with my boyfriend steve and our new chicago friend, stephen. we saw howl. i really liked the movie. james franco (allen ginsberg) and jon hamm (jake ehrlich) looked very handsome. i loved all the outfits and hair. i adored the scene with allen ginsberg and his boyfriend peter orlovsky outside sitting back to back. so cute!

Tuesday, October 5

Tuesday, September 28

this past weekend my sister, becca, came out to chicago to visit me. she was also my model on saturday for my hair school's practical exam. we had to perform our first cut on an actual person, moving up from those mannequins! becca really liked the way her cut turned out, and i did as well.

after the exam, i took her out to the chicago diner. we both had yummy vegan 'pork' tacos and then shared a platter of chips with salsa and guacamole. after dinner we headed down to the loop for some shopping!

sunday we went out for lunch at the pick-me-up cafe. after lunch, steve, becca, and i went to millenium park. one of becca's suite-mates at college sent her to chicago with a teddy bear. becca was supposed to take pictures of the bear at places in chicago, so we did some picture taking at some popular places here in the city, then chilled until it was time for her train back home.

i'm so happy my sister was able to come and visit me (and be my model)! come back soon, becca!